Suction cleaner dirt bag



Dec. 30, 1941. c, H, TAYLOR' 2,268,352

SUCTION CLEANER DIRT BAG Filed Sept. '7, 1940 Patented Dec. 30, 1941 SUCTION CLEANER DIRT BAG Charles H. Taylor, Springfield, Mass., assignor to The Hoover Company, North Canton, Ohio, a

corporation of Ohio Application September 7, 1940, Serial No. 355,723

3 Claims.

This invention relates to improvements in suction cleaner dirt bags and more particularly to a bag of a porous fabric or other fibrous material which is fashioned to a desired external contour in order that the bag may be accommodated within a given space.

A dirt bag to which the present disclosure pertains is primarily intended for use with a suction cleaner of the portable, handle-maneuvered type including a long handle pivotally connected to the cleaner body and provided with an elongated dirt bag connected at one end with the exhaust outlet from the cleaner body and suspended or otherwise supported at its outer end by attachment to the handle. With this arrangement, the bag preferably lies immediately below the handle and swings with it so that when the bag is inflated its depth, measured in the direction of the swinging movement of the handle, may be 8 or even 12 inches if such bag is made so that its diameter when inflated is substantially uniform in all directions. This means that it is quite impossible to lower the handle to a horizontal position as is frequently necessary in order to propel the cleaner beneath beds and other articles of furniture, without forcing the handle downwardly against the inflated bag with a consequent distortion thereof, not to mention the excessive wear to which the bag is subjected under this treatment. Therefore, from the standpoint of increased ease of operation and increased bag life, it is desirable to fashion the bag so that when inflated it assumes a relatively flat contour and thus occupies less space measured in a vertical direction, this being particu larly advantageous when the bag is adapted to a cleaner having a body of extremely low height so that it can be readily maneuvered under beds, chairs and other articles of furniture.

The object of the present invention is, therefore, to provide a suitable and practical construction for a dirt bag which will assume a flattened external contour when inflated.

A preferred construction for such a bag is disclosed in the accompanying drawing in which,

Figure l is a general view of a suction cleaner of the handle-maneuvered and so-called "lowheight" type, showing the usual arrangement of bag mounting with portions of the bag cut away to show its internal construction;

Figure 2 is a view similar to Figure 1 illustrating the advantage of a flattened bag when the handle is lowered to a horizontal position;

Figure 3 is a view in cross section taken through the bag as on line 3--3 of Figure 1; and

Figure 4 is an enlarged view in cross-section showing a modified construction for a bag.

Without going into detail as to the structure and operation of the cleaner, the same preferably consists of a relatively low wheeled body I forming the supporting structure for a motordriven suction unit whereby the dirt is removed from the carpet surface at the nozzle 2 and thence discharged through an exhaust outlet 3- at the rear end of the cleaner body, at which point is attached a dirt bag 4 capable of frequent removal for emptying the dirt collected therein. A handle 5 has pivotal mounting at its lower end upcn the cleaner body and is adapted to swing in an upright arc from a substantially vertical position to a horizontal rearwardly extending position, although during ordinary floor cleaning operation it assumes a working position between say, 30 and 45 degrees to the horizontal. And finally, the outer end of the dirt bag is preferably suspended from the handle by means of an extensible or flexible connecting member 6 so that the bag practically swings with the handle.

Needless to observe, the dirt bag t serves as a filter for removing the dirt from the air discharged into it and is generally made of a special grade of woven fabric of a porous texture, although this disclosure does not preclude the possibility of using other porous materials suitable for the purpose. But assuming for the purpose of this discussion that the bag is fashioned or tailored of special filter cloth or fabric, considerable latitude is permitted insofar as the general structure is concerned, that is to say, the outer walls of the bag may be made up of one, two or more pieces of material sewed together to form a tubular member suitably finished at its ends for attachment to the outlet connection from the cleaner body and for support from the handle. As usually constructed however, the lower or inlet end of the dirt bag has a hem into which is inserted a clamping ring, which in turn is clamped around an annular ring or attaching fitting whereby a readily detachable connection with the exhaust outlet from the fan chamber is made. Again, the upper end of the bag is finished so as to provide an open end preferably having reinforced marginal portions which can be folded together to close the opening and over which a clamp is applied, with the latter connected with the flexible attaching member I from the handle.

Now, the ordinary filter bag orporous material will assume a uniformly cylindric shape when inflated, but in the present disclosure the bag has a distinctly flattened contour which has been preferably brought about by inserting a transverse restraining web 1 between the top and bottom walls of the bag and extending longitudinally and centrally thereof, but terminating short of its upper and lower extremities, as shown in Figure 1. This web may be of the same material as that of which the bag is made or it may be constructed of an elastic sheet material such'as rubber, thus permitting of a limited stretching of the web when the bag is inflated.

As shown, this internal restraining web I is continuous from end to end, but it would be also possible and quite practical to cut up this single restraining web into a plurality of spaced webs inasmuch as it is not entirely necessary that the interior of the bagbe divided into separate compartments. Moreover, it is not essential or desirable that the internal volume of the bag be decreased by reason of its decreased depth, in fact, the bag could be fashioned so that its lateral dimensions would be increased to compensate for its decreased vertical dimension.

It is hardly necessary to present in detail the exact method of sewing or stitching which would be followed in tailoring a bag with shape-deflning internal web, inasmuch as the art of tailoring would readily suggest the most practical and economical method to be followed. In any case, it should be noted particularly that the bag may be fashioned so as to present a perfectly symmetrical external contour and yet to be sufil ciently shallower in one direction than another so that the bag will occupy less space beneath the handle and hence will not interfere with its movement to a maximum lowered position or even to a horizontal position. In fact, the upper and lower flattened surfaces of the bag would have shallow V-shaped grooves ll extending lengthwise and centrally thereof, thus providing additional space on the upper surface of the bag for accommodating the handle in its fully lowered position, as clearly shown in Figure 2.

Moreover, it would be possible to modify the construction of the bag, for instance, as shown in Figure 4 wherein the bag would be made up of two separate tubular sections 9, I arranged side by side and stitched togethe'r with material of each section suitably overlapping and reinforced. I

Having thus set forth the invention in its preferred and modified embodiment, I claim:

1. A suction cleaner dirt bag adapted to be mounted adjacent and supported at its outer end by the pivoted handle of the cleaner with its lower end connected with the cleaner exhaust outlet, said bag having its sectional dimension in the direction of itsmovement with the handle substantially less than its sectional dimension transverse thereto and provided in its surface adjacent the handle with a longitudinal recess to accommodate the handle during operation of the cleaner.

2. A suction cleaner dirt bag adapted to extend lengthwise adjacent the handle of the cleaner and comprising a body of filtering material constructed with inflation resisting means acting to reduce thedimensions of the bag in the direction of the handle movement and toprovide a longitudinal recess in its surface to accommodate the handle.

3. A suction cleaner dirt bag adapted to extend lengthwise beneath the cleaner handle and constructed with an internal restraining web extending longitudinally thereof and acting to reduce the dimension of said bag in the direction of the handle movement and to provide a recess in the upper surface of the bag to accommodate said handle and to permit the same to be lowered into a position substantially parallel with floor.

CHARLES H. TAYLOR.

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